A video signal is typically made up of a number of frames, where each frame represents an image. The individual frames are displayed at a high enough rate so that a moving image is presented to a viewer. A digital video signal is a video signal in digital form. A digital video signal may be created using a digital video source, such as a digital video camera. Alternatively, an analog video signal may be converted to digital form through the use of a frame grabber or other similar device.
Digital video files may be transmitted from a server to a client over a one or more computer networks. When a client requests a digital video from a server, the client typically provides the server with the address of the digital video, such as the Universal Resource Locator (URL) of the digital video. The server then accesses the digital video and sends or “streams” it to the client as a continuous data stream. Streaming video is typically sent in compressed form over the network, and is generally played by a video player on the client as it arrives. With streaming video, client users typically do not have to wait to download a large video file before seeing the video and/or hearing the sound. Instead, the video is sent in a continuous stream and is played as it arrives.
Currently in a networked system, a user watching a streamed video is presented at the client side with a video display and some controls, which the user can use to interact with the video. The controls typically include a fast forward control, a fast backward control, a pause control, and a seek control (typically implemented with a slider). Additionally, the user may be given an indication of the total duration of the video, and the current timeline location for the video being displayed with respect to the total duration.
In some situations a user may want to skim through different segments of the video in order to choose a portion of the video which interests him or her. To do this in known systems, the user typically randomly selects one or more locations on the video timeline and plays the video from those locations in order to see what those video segments look like. The user may do this multiple times before he or she can settle for some portion of the video which is of interest.
In view of the above, benefits may be realized by systems and methods which enable more convenient navigation of streaming video.